Jason Arday #3

[SunsetSmile]

Legal X person view that as JA was still technically an employee death in service benefits might apply(depending on policy wording/exclusions).

Cambridge did rather a sudden volte-face in announcing an investigation having considered it unnecessary before. How material was this new information & would the University have been reasonably expected to conduct dilligence to examine this at an earlier stage? Jesus were aware of questions from other academics but whether they were aware of the extent of the (subsequently spiked) T.H.E investigation & content of Carter Ruck's letter is not absolute.

I wonder if there might be a potential employment claim? The investigation was announced when there was already a media feeding frenzy & a vunerable man was served up. This is not to diminish the concerns wrt JA's claims & quality of his academic qualifications.

Dear God -was typing my comment & then just read Chancellor's live or die comment. These prople are tin eared. Perhaps they need an equivalent Line of Duty internal affairs investigation of processes & ethics.

 

[Tabitha D]

Is that confirmed tho cos Carter Ruck must be £££££. I know he was rumoured to have a huge book advance but that's not confirmed afaik so how did he afford Carter Ruck on retainer?

I wonder whether the publisher met the cost?

For the two letters Carter Ruck issued (one of them over 20 pages), it can’t have been less than £10,000 and may well have been double that.

That said, Arday had plenty of money. From his job, from speaking engagements, media appearances etc.

 

[Witchfinder Sargeant]

Legal X person view that as JA was still technically an employee death in service benefits might apply(depending on policy wording/exclusions).

Really? He'd resigned so wasn't an employee by that point. Are they arguing that he's still an employee during his notice period? I think that unless you're party to the terms of JA's contract and any agreement as part of his resignation, then you can't argue that with any certainty.

 

[Serene Serena]

I don’t think he had a US book tour planned. There were two launch events in London and Edinburgh which were cancelled.

Before he died?

 

[Serene Serena]

I wonder how many worthy book clubs will sign it up as a monthly read. I would fly on the wall those sessions.

If my book club does, I’m out. I’d rather read Enid Blyton.

 

[zcfthc5]

Really? He'd resigned so wasn't an employee by that point. Are they arguing that he's still an employee during his notice period? I think that unless you're party to the terms of JA's contract and any agreement as part of his resignation, then you can't argue that with any certainty.

could be a constructive dismissal argument?

 

[moldwarp]

I wonder whether the publisher met the cost?

For the two letters Carter Ruck issued (one of them over 20 pages), it can’t have been less than £10,000 and may well have been double that.

That said, Arday had plenty of money. From his job, from speaking engagements, media appearances etc.

I don't think it can have been the publisher as the Carter Ruck work was centred around the plagiarism allegations, not the book, right?

Besides, I read somewhere that Carter Ruck was engaged on and off on Arday's behalf since his appointment to Cambridge in 2023. There were complaints and concerns about him from the start. I think it was Cambridge paying for at least some of it. They only denied their involvement in regards to CR's final legal letters.

re Arday's final action, clearly such an action can never and should never be attributed to one thing which is why it's disgusting what Kehinde Andrews said about it. BUT, I also think we shouldn't underestimate how fears of being sued / financial ruin / potential lawsuits from students / Simon & Schuster may have played into Arday's desperate thinking.

 

[SharkAttack]

I don't want to sound offensive, but why would the average American care about a British academic?
Surely there are plenty of inspirational memoirs from people they can actually relate to? It just seems like a curious choice to target the US market first, unless they thought there'd be less scrutiny over there.

I completely agree. Positive Yanks may be less cynical than us evil Brits, but do they care about some random South Londoner doing to work at Sports Direct?

 

[VeniVidiVicki]

Before he died?

Yes. They were scheduled for September and he cancelled them (or maybe simon&schuster did)

 

[SunsetSmile]

Cofnas suspended by Ghent.

 

[ScouseGossip]

I completely agree. Positive Yanks may be less cynical than us evil Brits, but do they care about some random South Londoner doing to work at Sports Direct?

Exactly this! It's such a weird choice! They've already had their fair share of misery memoirs, even the likes of Hillbilly Elegy which was actually pretty inspirational - this was before JD Vance was in government and became a raving loon obv.
I could imagine the average American reading about the likes of Dolly Parton escaping dire poverty in Appalachia, or Viola Davis who lived in rat infested apartments and often had no electricity or food and being genuinely moved, but some random geezer who did some part time retail work doesn't quite provoke the same emotion does it?

 

[HotesTilaire]

I don't want to sound offensive, but why would the average American care about a British academic?
Surely there are plenty of inspirational memoirs from people they can actually relate to? It just seems like a curious choice to target the US market first, unless they thought there'd be less scrutiny over there.

They love British stuff though. They think Cambridge is Harry Potter Land. I’d imagine the US market would be huge. You’ve got people of colour in general and social justice interest and general anglophiles and people who believe in Harry Potter.

 

[HotesTilaire]

Legal X person view that as JA was still technically an employee death in service benefits might apply(depending on policy wording/exclusions).

Cambridge did rather a sudden volte-face in announcing an investigation having considered it unnecessary before. How material was this new information & would the University have been reasonably expected to conduct dilligence to examine this at an earlier stage? Jesus were aware of questions from other academics but whether they were aware of the extent of the (subsequently spiked) T.H.E investigation & content of Carter Ruck's letter is not absolute.

I wonder if there might be a potential employment claim? The investigation was announced when there was already a media feeding frenzy & a vunerable man was served up. This is not to diminish the concerns wrt JA's claims & quality of his academic qualifications.

Dear God -was typing my comment & then just read Chancellor's live or die comment. These prople are tin eared. Perhaps they need an equivalent Line of Duty internal affairs investigation of processes & ethics.

Can’t do a claim on employment for a deceased person.

pensions usually have specifics in the scheme for Death benefits and there is only a small sliver of a chance the beneficiary can argue he died in service rather than after he left.

It also depends on who was named as a beneficiary, or if nobody, then it goes to Giff and Dad I think.

 

[emmer_moans]

Cambridge need to be careful, other academics that were hushed might now make claims of mistreatment and lack of support, etc. I wonder what the senior leadership teams are doing right now.

 

[PaddyDomino]

 

[MavisBeacon]

Good grief.
Fire Cofnas because he's a racist eugenicist, not because of this.
Christ, every opportunity the academy has to do the dumbest thing imaginable, it takes it.

 

[Yel]

Cofnas suspended by Ghent.

Allegedly by someone who used ChatGPT to write her inaugural speech

 

[PineappleQueen19]

A transgender gynaecologist

 

[Catsexyfeline]

Does anyone else feel like they woke up in an alternate universe? The world has gone mad. Common sense and critical thinking have been abandoned it seems.

Meanwhile I’m still trying to understand how anyone can believe such an infantile style of writing is the product ot a Cambridge professor? Can someone make it make sense?

 

[didisaythatoutloudoops]

My daughter has two Master's degrees, one acquired pre-COVID, and pre-ChatGPT, and one post-COVID and post-ChatGPT (online). Each from two of the UK and world's best ranked universities for teaching and research.

She was absolutely gobsmacked at the difference in her experiences. Her first university was fantastic and a great experience, tough, but academically rigorous and she felt she'd received a quality education and earned her award. At her second, she often told me that she felt like a cash cow, and that the university quite frankly didn't care how you got your answers as long as you submitted them on time, passed the paltry plagiarism software, and most importantly paid your fees.

Students openly admitted in group chats to using AI to write their work, to panicking over having used an AI that would then hallucinate references or needing to rewrite sections due to plagiarism detection software. The university didn't care one jot. As long as their image is protected and you're filling their bank account with tuition fees, whatever. The professors saw meetings as obligations and her supervisor made it clear he simply didn't care: he turned up to meetings having not read her thesis. There were zero academic standards beyond the screening software. Even the marked feedback was AI-generated.

She left with a really sour taste in her mouth and the case of Arday has brought it back. She has no doubt that had she chosen to plagiarise her research - and I'm relieved to say she did not - that it would have been very, very easy to get away with, and the university would have benefitted from her tooting her own horn about it because it sells them as success makers to other fee payers. Reputation is now only a tool for earning more money. Speaking out about her experience directly devalues her degree - and the universities know it. They have to make the choice between calling out the situation in a very fraught job market, and devaluing extortionately priced education, or keeping quiet and letting the cycle continue.

That's all to say that I hope this tragic situation actually sparks wider questions about how universities in the UK are profit centres above all else right now, and these dirty scenarios follow naturally from that approach.